Vicky Cristina Barcelona [Blu-ray]
by Woody Allen
![Vicky Cristina Barcelona [Blu-ray]](/images/Vicky-Cristina-Barcelona-Blu-ray-B001G9F9IW-L.jpg)
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Blu-ray details
Actor: Javier Bardem, Patricia Clarkson, Penelope Cruz, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett JohanssonDirector: Woody Allen
Brand: Wellspring Media INC
Producer: Letty Aronson
Blu-ray: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Subtitled, Widescreen
Running Time: 96 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: 2009-01-27
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Blu-ray Reviews of Vicky Cristina Barcelona [Blu-ray]
Blu-ray Review: Another Hypersexual Film By Woody Allen
Summary: 3 Stars
It's official: Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) is the luckiest man/actor on the planet! I mean, this guy gets to make out with three of the most gorgeous women acting today. Forget that one of them is his current girlfriend (Penelope Cruz). He also got down with hottie Rebecca Hall (The Prestige) and ultimate hottie Scarlett Johansson (Match Point). Regardless of how I felt about the rest of the film, there was plenty of eye-candy for guys. And those ladies who think Javier isn't too shabby himself, well, there's that, too.
But let me explain why I'm talking about how good-looking these folks are on-screen and why I started my review in such an unabashed way. Director Woody Allen is well-known for his love of beautiful people. Everything from Sleeper to Match Point has been sexually charged, to say the least. But his take on relationships is exceptionally skewed toward the hyper-sexual, and that's even more true here. Some might compare this to his private life, but I'll leave that alone ...for now.
***CONTAINS SPOILERS***
This time we have two women, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) on vacation in Barcelona, Spain. The two are good friends and Vicky (Hall) is taking a break in preparation for marriage to Doug (Chris Messina), whom she leaves back in the States. Cristina isn't even close to being ready for marriage, and rips through relationships like a laundry woman through sheets. Then the two ladies meet Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) who approaches them with a unique proposal: fly away with him to his house in the north and have sex with him; both of them. At the same time, perhaps. This doesn't surprise Vicky, who immediately labels him a troll with artistic aspirations. But Cristina is intrigued by his forwardness, and the two ladies go with him to his beautiful Spanish home. But Cristina gets sick after eating some bad food, which leaves Vicky and Juan Antonio together, and opposite sparks fly. Then, after Cristina gets better, Juan Antonio takes her into his bed, too. But then a phone call in the middle of the night leads to Juan Antonio's ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz), coming to stay with them after a suicide attempt. Cristina and Juan become closer. His ex-wife and Cristina become closer. Juan Antonio and his ex-wife reignite their passions ...with Cristina getting involved with both of them, if you know what I mean.
Meanwhile, Vicky is struggling to deal with her feelings on the night when she weakened and had sex with Juan Antonio. She begins questioning whether she's ready for marriage. But then Dough, her fiancé, comes to Spain with the option to get married there before returning to the States and "doing it up right."
***END SPOILERS***
There are quite a few twists and turns in the multiple relationships that wind and unwind themselves. And that is what made most of the story interesting (that and the beautiful people surrounded by the beauty of Barcelona). So you can see why I started my review the way I did. It's mainly about how sexually charged relationships can change (or maybe not change) who we are. Which brings me to my next point: Penelope Cruz's Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress. I'm not gonna take anything away from her. She did a fine job. But she wasn't on-screen very much. Personally, I think Rebecca Hall got gypped during the Oscar's. Her battles for her emotional stability were what kept me watching, not Penelope Cruz. Hall's character was so conflicted that I could empathize with her. While Cruz's character only made me laugh because she seemed almost like a caricature.
Still, it's an interesting film to watch. But it's really just another Woody Allen sex-take on relationships.
Description of Vicky Cristina Barcelona [Blu-ray]
Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Oscar nominee Penelope Cruz (Volver) and Golden Globe nominee Scarlett Johansson (The Nanny Diaries) light up the stunning city of Barcelona in this sexy romantic comedy. Vicky and Cristina are two young Americans spending a summer in Spain, who meet a charming Casanova and his beautiful but volatile ex-wife. When they all become romantically entangled, the smoldering sparks begin to fly in hilarious fashion. Critics rave, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is one of Woody Allen s finest films, with bravura performances from its incredible cast (Jeffrey Lyons, Reel Talk/NBC).It must be true that getting out of town can do a fellow a lot of good, because Vicky Cristina Barcelona is the best movie Woody Allen has made in years. Okay, you're right, 2006's Match Point already claimed that honor and, as Allen's first film made in England, established the virtues of getting away from overfamiliar territory (namely Manhattan). But the Woodman's first film made in Spain matches the ice-cold Match Point for crisp authority, and yields a good deal more sheer pleasure besides. Rebecca Hall (Vicky) and Scarlett Johansson (Cristina) play two young Americans, best friends, spending a summer in Catalonia. Vicky is going for a master's in "Catalan identity" (though her Spanish is shaky); Cristina is going along for, oh, just about anything. That soon includes celebrated abstract artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), who's anything but abstract in his forthright proposition that the two join him in his private plane, his travels, and his bed. That he has an insane ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz), who may or may not have tried to kill him is not really an issue until the wife reappears and ... well, consider the possibilities.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona isn't exactly a comedy, at least not in the manner of Allen's "early, funny ones," but it's informed by a rueful wit that finds its fullest expression in reflective voiceover commentary. Spoken by Christopher Evan Welch, but surely on behalf of the 73-year-old auteur, this element of the film is neither (as some have charged) patronizing nor uncinematic; rather, it's integral to the movie's participation in a venerable European literary tradition, the sentimental education. Instead of Bergman or Fellini, this time Allen is invoking the François Truffaut of Jules and Jim and Eric Rohmer in his many meditations on the game of love. The entire cast is terrific (both Hall and Johansson get to play "the Woody part" at different points), with Bardem and Cruz especially delightful as exemplars of Old Worldliness. Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe honors every drop of Catalonian sunlight and glint of Gaudí architecture. --Richard T. Jameson
Stills from Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Click for larger image)
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